Will Xbox One allow you to trade in and resell disc-based games? Yes…sort of, says Microsoft in its fresh “How Games Licensing Works on Xbox One” explainer, before winding up like some star NFL kicker and punting the ball downfield.

Before we proceed, give this a quick read — the relevant text:

Trade-in and resell your disc-based games: Today, some gamers choose to sell their old disc-based games back for cash and credit. We designed Xbox One so game publishers can enable you to trade in your games at participating retailers. Microsoft does not charge a platform fee to retailers, publishers, or consumers for enabling transfer of these games.

Give your games to friends: Xbox One is designed so game publishers can enable you to give your disc-based games to your friends. There are no fees charged as part of these transfers. There are two requirements: you can only give them to people who have been on your friends list for at least 30 days and each game can only be given once.

In our role as a game publisher, Microsoft Studios will enable you to give your games to friends or trade in your Xbox One games at participating retailers. Third party publishers may opt in or out of supporting game resale and may set up business terms or transfer fees with retailers. Microsoft does not receive any compensation as part of this. In addition, third party publishers can enable you to give games to friends. Loaning or renting games won’t be available at launch, but we are exploring the possibilities with our partners.

First things first: Contrary to some of the alarmist rumors kicked around by the gossip blogs last month, Microsoft’s confirming it won’t charge a fee if you hand a game off to someone else with an Xbox One. It also won’t charge a fee if you choose to trade-in your used disc-based games. In fact, the company’s basically saying it and fees are like celebrity news sites and responsible reporting — just not happening.

But, and get ready because here comes the ball on that punt, notice all this language about “third party publishers.” Third party publishers — some of used gaming’s fiercest critics, mind you — are accorded final say when it comes to whether you’ll be able to resell a disc-based game or not (and whether you’ll have to pay a fee to do so) or hand game over to your friends.

That means precisely what it seems to: Your right to do any of this stuff with disc-based games just took a serious nosedive with the Xbox One. Instead of making the Xbox One the arbiter, Microsoft’s leaving us in the hands of third parties. “We’re just the messenger!” might as well be the Xbox One’s theme song.

Let’s talk about choices. Microsoft had several here as the middleman. It could have chosen to stand for consumer rights and forced game publishers to lay down on, for instance, disc-based trade-ins. Instead, presumably under pressure from these publishers, it’s choosing to externalize those responsibilities. If EA decides it doesn’t want you trading in Madden NFL or wants to impose a transfer fee on the transaction, that’s EA’s business. If Activision wants to prevent you from giving a friend a copy of Call of Duty to anyone, that’s Activision’s affair.

There is a potential upside to this approach: By shifting the responsibility to third parties, consumers can lobby (or, say, boycott) a third party interpreting these policies toward the draconian end of the scale. While we sometimes choose poorly as consumers (hello Mass Effect 3), aiming us directly at third party publishers gives us at least some recourse (as opposed to boycotting the entire console), though given what we’re losing in the bargain, it’s a bit like celebrating the right to paddle around in a pool after being yanked out of the ocean.

What bugs me the most, however, is Microsoft’s new approach to game lending (or should we call it “gifting”?). Physical game lending, like borrowing a physical movie, a physical book, or or any other sort of reusable physical good, is a time-honored practice reaching back millennia. That’s all about to change with Xbox One.

Microsoft grants that third parties can choose to allow you to give games to others, but — assuming third parties don’t outlaw the practice — these recipients have to be on your friends list (in Xbox LIVE) for at least 30 days. In addition to being arbitrary, that’s simply bizarre. How, in any conceivable sense, legal or otherwise, is it any of Microsoft’s business who I want to give a game to, or under what circumstances of “friendship”? And it gets worse: You can only give someone a game once. I’m reading that as once period, not once per friend, and — this isn’t crystal clear — I gather you can’t have the game back. So gifting, in other words, and R.I.P. sharing.

In addition to being a generally terrible idea, this notion of restricting disc-based games is also inconsistent: Xbox One doesn’t prevent giving (or lending) of disc-based movies or TV shows. Like Xbox One’s inconsistent Internet connectivity requirements, Microsoft’s singling out games, doubtless to squeeze more blood from the stone. Why, as disc-based games are in their twilight days, couldn’t the company have just endorsed the status quo?

There’s a sidebar here about digital, non-disc-based games and the resale of digital content — something we can’t currently do. If you believe, as many do (via the First-sale doctrine, and most of history) that you have a right to resell a good you’ve paid for — digital or otherwise — then Microsoft’s entire Xbox One licensing philosophy collapses (as, to be fair, does everyone else’s). I mention it only to make you aware, if you’re not, that the legal debate over our ability to resell digital content (still very much a physical good) is ongoing.

Microsoft marketing department is keen to remind us that the Xbox One’s architecture is “modern.” You’ll note the word is used prominently in two of the company’s three Xbox One explainer pages. “We’re making these choices because it’s the “modern” thing to do” — that’s the implication, anyway. But some of these choices aren’t questions of modern versus legacy thinking. They’re about deploying modern technology to enable (and excuse) what amounts to pure and simple protectionism, and that’s never been a positive development from the vantage of consumer rights.

Consumer Right out of the Window. What does Microsoft do? Point blame at the DRM policy, and start targeting the customers that support them and that want their product. Smart move Microsoft, what will you think of next?

Vote with your hard earned money people! Give msft the finger and get a sony ps4. This is going to be an epic blunder on msft's part. Corporations are going to want to extract "licensing" fees for everything someday, this is just the tip of the iceberg, if we allow them.

As we move into this new generation of games and entertainment, from time to time, Microsoft may change its policies, terms, products and services to reflect modifications and improvements to our services, feedback from customers and our business partners or changes in our business priorities and business models or for other reasons. We may also cease to offer certain services or products for similar reasons.

In the months ahead, we will continue to listen to your feedback as we meet with our partners in the ecosystem to bring additional detail about our policies.

We are excited about this new generation of games and entertainment and look forward to sharing more news with our fans.

I realize that you don't like it that you can't share the games, but come on people. If you think the game is awesome and your friend wants to play it, just tell them to buy the game! It will support the game developer allowing them to make better games in the future! Have your friend come over to your house to play it and then if they like it they can buy it for themselves.Once you buy a cheeseburger and eat it, you can't just give it to your friend. They have to buy their own to enjoy it.

Let it crash, Greed sidetracks innovation. Imagine a whale doing everything it could to get the suckers and hitchhikers off of it, it would starve to death. So it will be with Xbox1. You cannot increase your profits by shrinking your market. When a consumer buys a game he lets a friend borrow it or resells it and gets another; he feels like it is his property, after all he paid hard earned cash for it. Licence or not that view will not change any time soon. At least this will make room for competition.

real smart mirosoft.You have to be connected one a day to play your games. And that means you'll have to have an xbox live account at all times to play your games. You've added a mandatory fee automatially.

Here is one huge problem I see. You guys buy this game and pay 60 to 70 bucks for it finish it in a week and now your stuck with it. Or the option of gifting or all that BS. As of now you can go put money in to the rental places. Pay them to rent it like a movie or a PS3 or XBox 360 or Wii. Keeping jobs out there for all those smaller people. How many have you have gone out and rented a game then decided you wanted to own it and gone and bought it. Or you buddy tells you to check this game out they just got so they bring it over and you play and then you go and buy it. Some of us cant afford to go spend 60 or 70 bucks on games but can afford to go rent from local renting places. MS is taking ALL the rental people out of picture. I can only speak for myself but I know that out of the amount of games put out I would be a little more willing to go with the no letting your buddy try it out for a couple days to see if he likes or having to go through all the BS to "gift" to someone if games did not cost so much money. I hate spending all that money to find out that the game sucks and then being stuck with a game. Hence why renting has always been a great option.

This thing is just one bummer after another. I keep looking over these article hoping that MS will back track but they seem to heavily invested in being a Big Brother.

MS needs to learn from the WiiU flop. Folks said they did not want it and Nintendo just kept pushing and guess what, hardly anyone bought into it. I have burned through 3 Xboxs and 2 Xbox 360's, plenty of my friends labeled me a Xbox "fanboi" in the past but there is no way im buying into this system.

So, basically, I have to be connected to the internet even if I'm playing something like the next Fallout or whatever single player game I'm delving into... What if the internet goes out? I'm screwed... I wouldn't have a problem if I'm not required to be on the internet to play a game that I'm not trying to have a social experience with. So I can "gift" a game I've purchased to a friend that has been on my Xbox Live friends list for 30 days, but they can't give it back to me? but I paid for it, as well, what if I wanna take the game over to a buddy's house and pop it in his Xbox One (but I haven't gifted it to him, I just want us both to be able fight one another in a new Tekken or something) does that simply mean we are screwed and he is supposed to already have his own copy of the game or something? Which is ridiculous, I just wanna be able to use one copy of the game for that kind of stuff. Why is the distribution of physical content such a hot topic. I let an orphan boy I work with have my copy of Borderlands and a Xbox 360 controller I had because his broke. It's the same as giving my Game of Thrones books to my girlfriend. I don't see George R.R. Martin having an issue with that, you tech companies are just getting so out of control in your lust for money.

@SidneyPhillips And what's to say that Sony is just playing along with all this until the Xbox fails and Sony gets a monopoly? Then they'll be able to impose any charges they want without any powerful capitalistic rival like Xbox to offer a better model. Sony is already making PS4 owners pay $50 a year for online multiplayer, who's to say next console they won't do all the same limiting stuff that Xbox is doing now? You have no idea and you can't tell me that they won't because you'd be guessing.

@Beybladera Welcome to Earth, what planet are you visiting from? On my world, I'm used to trading for free books, dvds, blu-rays, cd's, and yes video games with my friends. What makes game companies any different now? Do you have a burning desire to let corporations "license" something you already paid good money for? Sony PS4 is going to wipe out Microsoft if this stupid policy stays in place.

@Beybladera@Beybladera ....im sorry is this a real comment? If you buy a "cheeseburger" (if thats really where you wanna take this) you can split the "cheeseburger" half. People have been borrowing games for ages...hell i still have some of my friends video games from the PS2! Not all of us can just go out and buy all the hotest games on the market!

@AntonioVicenteMarín THANK YOU, man ive been thinking the same thing this whole time, on top of that fact that MS is taking the brunt of the heat over something im sure Sony is going to implement as well. That being said, me and most people i know, buy a game we want new, and thats about where it ends. Not trying to play the used game market like the commodity trading one so, whatever.

And in all reality most of the artists making these games, (im in the industry so i know many of them personally), these games that take an incredible amount of talent and work to create and people spend countless hours playing, dont make that much money as it is working pretty rigorous hours, so if the new DRM can help the welfare of the people putting in the hours for something i can enjoy, im down, not going to cry over not being able to gift/trade/sell for a potential fee (or not), that would just make me sound like a spoiled whiney consumer b****.

@AntonioVicenteMarín lol your a funny guy, my RIGHT to lend, give, throw, break, dip in chocolate, dip in water, wipe my face with any item that I buy with my hard earned money is my RIGHT, you want to know why? because I bought it, I OWN IT, IT IS MINE. This is the argument.

I hear ya'! I really enjoyed the OG Xbox, it was the defining bridge between PC and Console gaming. The 360 has the best controller I've ever held, and some of the best games you'll find anywhere. I'm really disappointed that Microsoft chose to go in this direction...

I think the Wii U could stabilize if they just launched some freakin' software for the thing! And if it doesn't, at least it showed us how awesome off screen play can be with a home console.

@n7specops You don't have to be connected at all times. Just for the daily check. If the internet does go out its a pretty small check so you could tether your phone to the X1 and it would be fine. Typically internet connections do not go out for long periods of time. I can't remember the last time I lost my internet connection for more than 30 min. As for playing at friends houses you can still do it you would just have to transfer your account. Which most people do anyway to transfer their gamertags for achievement, settings and what not. As for sharing games with others I really don't have much pity in that aspect since I think it robs the Publishers or their potential sale.

As for having one copy for everything it pretty much is that way. Once you connect the disc to your account you can play it from anywhere or any console you transfer your account to without the disc. Same goes for the 10 people you add to your family pack. They can play all of your titles as well from any console anytime.

The tech companies you speak of are failing as a business model and are being bought up or bankrupt. This is their attempt to turn console gaming to what PC standards are. Still I think Sony and MS are being pressured into this we will see when Sony announces. Either way MS has stated that the games they publish will have no restrictions. I guess time will tell.

@SidneyPhillips@Beybladera You might want to stop getting used to that then. It's an old concept by now. The only reason books and cd's didn't do this same exact thing is because they didn't have any way of doing it. Now with more sophisticated technology it's only logical that this would and will happen. You don't own the game when you buy it, you own the right to play the game that the game creators made. You shouldn't be able to give it to someone else like you made it and it belongs to you, companies just couldn't stop you before now. Sony and all other companies will most likely switch over to this system too sooner or later unless there's an overwhelming outcry by old fashioned gamers who don't want to pay full price for their games.Personally I wouldn't mind that though because I like getting used games too and I'm pretty stingy, but I am just playing devil's advocate for the sake of understanding Microsoft's intent. I feel like not enough people are willing to even think about the "evil corporation's" point of view, because they usually aren't as evil as most commentors on the internet make them out to be.

@mrswaggoner2012@Beybladera That was just a silly metaphor, but it still applies. If your friend doesn't have the money to buy the game then he can play it at your house. If he really really likes the game he can go out and get it himself. It isn't fair to the developer for their product to be bought by one person but used by two, three, ten people without the profits of that transaction going to them.It's even worse with the new Xbox One. Now that you download the game on the console to play it without the disc, it makes every sense to prevent people from just passing the disc on. With the 360, once you give the disc to someone else then they have the game and you can't play it anymore. With the Xbox One, once you give the disc to someone else they have the game but you can play it as well because you still have it downloaded, and now they have it downloaded, and they can give it to infinite other people to download. Now you can all play it at the same time without having to buy it, it's basically like stealing.Now think back to my metaphor and tell me if this makes sense. Imagine that half eaten cheeseburger that you just gave to your friend could regenerate into a new one and every time they ate half and gave it away it would do the same. Well now no one would buy from the cheeseburger joint and it would go out of business! Personally I don't want my favorite video game companies going out of business, not sure about you...

@ecsdesignsvfx@AntonioVicenteMarín I work in the game industry. Used games are not the major problem. The problems are Publishers not wanting to try new IPs. They want to drive franchises into the ground. This is why games from one franchise is brought out so quickly and no story is put into them. They will spend more money advertising top franchises and not take a chance on new IPs, so people tend to skip them or not buy them day one. What happens when you dont buy a game in the first 2 weeks? People turn to Used Games. People forget, that the majority of people who rent games or buy used games, were not willing to buy the game full price. It was a toss up for them if they were going for the game or not. So if you think by getting rid of used games, you will see more money to us, The developers and Publishers, maybe we might, or maybe not. It wont be too much of a change, because the people that weren't too sure about getting a game, most likely they will skip it till they get a game they know they want day 1. So you still end up with 0 dollars from that customer. So instead of making more money, you are now causing a bigger problem. A problem where the customer doesnt trust you and doesnt want your service anymore. If they dont think that people will move on to some other gaming device, they will. People will go straight to PC if they have to deal with DRM. Not even all pc games have that. But hey, I cant blame the customers. The consoles want to be more and more like PCs every Gen. Now with this DRM, it might just push people away. My last point......Dont be too sure about Sony doing the same. Just a little hint on what's to come. Even though it might hurt them with some Publishers.....but you will see.

@LindaB.ManuelBenavidez@AntonioVicenteMarín Actually you can lend, give, throw, break, dip in chocolate or dip in water your Diablo III for PC, but if you want to play Diablo III you are subjected to Blizzard condictions.

@_LarZen_@AntonioVicenteMarín If i´m going to enjoy the fruit of labor of someone, i´ll be ready to accept his condictions, paying the prize. I think no reason to whining like a child asking for her mom.

OK all this screw MS im with sony now. Well basically sony
has said the same thing. The issue lands at the DEV its all going to be based
on the EULA. You see the dirty secret not one wants you to know. When you pay $60 for a game you actually don’t
own it. What you own is the right to use it based on the EULA. When you buy the
game you agree to the EULA. If you ever read an eula its great reading also
good if you need something to put you to sleep.

SO what makes you think a dev is going to say no trade on
xbox but free to trade on sony. Hmm none. No dev. Sony can make it a
requirement for certification but then all they need to do is allow trading in
the EULA.

So I would expect the same type of deal with sony. They may
spin it better. They may even blame Microsoft – I would do that its fun.. But
gamers will go where the games are. If 100 million games are on xbox 1 and 5
are on sony cause the devs don’t want to certify. Eventually people will go
where the games are.

@jamesdean247@n7specops I hope so, because I am a Microsoft fan. I haven't picked up a Sony controller since about 2004. And I mean, I probably will pick the X1 up, this new generation is going to be rough for sales for both companies because yeah, you are gonna have people waiting in line to be the first ones to have the things, but so many more are going to wait to see first impression videos and reviews on Youtube and around the web and by their friends before picking the Xbox One, the PS4, or both up. As loyal of an MS fan that I am, I'm gonna be eager to get my hands on Xbox One, but I might wait a month or so to see what bugs people have and such. I remember the infamous red ring of death, I had it on the first gen 360, but I've had the most current gen 360 for a long time and haven't had any problems. That's my thing, I'm sure all this anti-online connection and technically no used games hype is being way over-dramatized, but I want to wait and see what things go wrong with which systems, because I'm by no means poor, but like my first 360, if the red ring of death wouldn't have happened paired with overheating problems that killed it, I would still be on my first 360 instead of my second. So, I'm looking for which console I will only pay for once and have it until the next generation comes about.

@mehdital@Beybladera@mrswaggoner2012 You bring up a good point, and no it's not hard to realize. Microsoft realizes though that if the game is passed around too many times, like more than once, then the developers will lose money. I don't think you're right though about there always being copies of games going around causing loss for game developers. As long as companies like Microsoft and game developers defend against the piraters, the piraters will never get a good enough foothold to make a dent in their revenue.I don't think that giving games to friends is stealing, I just don't think it's moral either. You don't own the game that you bought, you own the right to play it. If your friend or a customer on ebay wants to play it they should buy it from the developer, not you (because you didn't make it, they did). Doesn't that make sense? Read my reply to SidneyPhillips below to see why I say this.

@Beybladera Neither system is letting you make infinite copies. For the Xbox One, you can't lend them to friends, only give them away once. Once your friend registers it into his system, then it is his and the copy in your system gets locked. You can only do this once. Selling games is also restricted only to retailers where Microsoft says is okay, if the publishers allow it. So Microsoft is actually trying to help the developers, but it comes at the price of us not being able to rent or borrow games. Yes, making infinite copies is stealing, but that's not the issue here. The issue is, if I buy a game, a car, a movie, or a book, should I have the right to share or sell it to whomever I wish? Should we be allowed to have rental stores? Should we be allowed to have libraries instead of having to buy the author's book? The question is, will developers make more money from this or none at all because people just aren't interested?

@Beybladera@mrswaggoner2012 No one said that the game must stay on your Xbox One once you borrowed it to somebody. And that friend will not have the same rights as you on the game (like borrowing it to another person). Only you can borrow and only to one friend at a time and during that time you will not be able to access your game. How difficult is this to realize? And no matter what you do there will always be copies of games going around, causing lost for games developper, giving games to friends is not stealing, and never was and the industry of videogaming survived for 30 years and more with it and still evolving

@NicholasLim@ecsdesignsvfx@AntonioVicenteMarín They had a policy leaving it up to publishers similar to MS's, they capitalized on the situation and took the opportunity to land a big blow to MS after all the churn about it, well played Sony.

@Not2Nerdy@ecsdesignsvfx@AntonioVicenteMarín Great points for sure. As far as Sony's stance, i have legitimate reasons to believe they will be doing the same, its not just a shot in the dark guess. Guess only time will prove either way.

@AntonioVicenteMarín@LindaB.ManuelBenavidez That's not the way the world works. I buy the GAME to enjoy it. I don't buy it for the conditions or the hidden extras, I buy it for the game. And Microsoft isn't letting us buy games, they're letting us rent games with ridiculous strings attached.

@AntonioVicenteMarín@_LarZen_ First of all, I am speaking of someone new into the gaming Industry. I just finished grad school and I currently work for a gaming company that I will not name right now. People have every right to complain. What Microsoft is doing is creating a rental system, because the customer no longer owns the game. They play when Microsoft allows them too. The problem is not only what is obvious at the moment; it also occurs in the future. What happens when Microsoft moves onto the next gen in 10 years? Or what happens if Microsoft decides to stop all servers for Xbox One and move away from the gaming industry? What happens to the games in the cloud? What happens to the activation process for the games you picked up? Clearly the used games are no more, so how exactly do I play an older game? Where can I find one and play it? The problem with this system is, the game dies with the console. It dies with your hard drive as well. Games I did pay for, I can no longer play. Something I purchased is gone, not by my choice. So its funny to see someone like you who just say, " Stop Whining.....If you cant afford a hobby choose a new one" Lol I didnt realize you love paying for something you will never own.

By the way, the whole internet thing will bother more people than you think. I travel a lot, and some hotels charge for internet per night, or they have choppy wifi access. This will affect people over seas. So I have relatives that are in Afghanistan for the military and they have and xbox 360 and Ps3. They dont use internet, but yet they use it to play games with others. Keeps them sane over there. So screw them too? Its funny how people think. When something isn't affecting them, they assume that everyone else is ok. You seem like the bigger child, sorry to call you out, but its true. #GetOverIt

@_LarZen_@AntonioVicenteMarínyes, there are reasons to complain and not buying the new Xbox One; if you dont have good internet, you like renting and lending your games... ok that´s fair

But people often forget that Microsoft is not going to forbid "rights"; if a politician is going to raise my taxes I have no choice but pay, and then i can get angry and become protester. But Microsoft is stating a balanced situation of gaming, actually with rectrictions, but after all you pay for your game, and you enjoy it.

I think this is the point; people should enjoy more and feel happy of the new great games to come, better than all this negativity. Free market keep prizes reasonable, and everyone happy. But piracy is always disturbing free market, and i consider logic fighting against it, in spite of disturbing a small (and respectable) minority.

@AntonioVicenteMarín@_LarZen_ Many ways to complain, some more juvenile then others as expected with a hobby and passion that everyone from children to adults enjoy.

These restrictions is just a big bad DRM system, if people thought the DRM that PC users have had to endure is bad they have nothing to complain about if they look at what Microsoft is now doing.

And is some countries with strong consumer rights Microsoft are actually maybe in violation of these laws. With the XBO you don't own your physical games, you are renting them and have no consumer control of it.

So asking their mom or not, people have good reasons to complain. I would actually say that everyone with any logic would complain about Microsoft's desire to transform something so easy and simple as console gaming into this monster that they have created.

@AntonioVicenteMarín@_LarZen_ So if someone voices a opinion of dissatisfaction and you do not agree with, then it is whining like a child to there mother. You talk of sense. Please read your statements again. Talk about making very little sense.

@PaulGbel@jamesdean247@n7specops And now you are going to be forced in to having a paid for Live account also. So not just internet. So you live out in middle of no where that you don't care to have internet because you have at work and your cell phone signal not strong enough to do anything. To bad so sad for the the little people in life getting crushed by the money hungry company's out in the world.